A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY ON THE SIXTH GRADE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT ON DESCRIPTIVE TEXT AT SDN KARANGREJO 3 JEMBER IN THE 2011/2012 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

Reading is the important factor that can support the process of mastering other language skills and improving knowledge. By reading students will be able to gain information from the written text. Considering the importance of reading stated above, researcher as the English teacher of the sixth grade students of SDN Karangrejo 3 Jember in the 2011/2012 academic year, initiated to conduct a descriptive research in order to get more detailed information from the students about their comprehension achievement in reading, particularly on descriptive text. The research respondents were determined by cluster random sampling method through a lottery, because there are one superior class and two regular classes. The researcher took the respondent from the two regular classes who got similar capability, and 6B was students who got chosen. The total numbers of the respondents were 26 students. The primary data of this research were collected from the students’ scores of reading comprehension test, while the supporting data were gained through documentation. The primary data were collected from the post test to have detail comprehension achievement of the students, and analyzed it by using Independent sample T-Test (SPSS). In this research, the researchers took place actively in teaching learning process natural part. It was called as participant observation. To make the result of this research valid, the researcher intended not to let the students know that they were being observed. Based on the score of the reading test, the six grade students’ achievement in reading descriptive texts at SDN Karangrejo 3 Jember, particularly 6B, in the 2011/2012 academic year is categorized “poor” with the percentage of 53.52%. The conclusion was supported by the result of the students’ reading descriptive texts of each indicator as follows: a. In comprehending word meaning, the achievement is 48.08% that is categorized as “poor”. b. In comprehending sentences, the achievement is 42.30% that is categorized as “poor”. c. In comprehending paragraphs, the achievement is 54.49% that is categorized as “poor”. d. In comprehending the whole texts, the achievement is 69.23% that is categorized as “fair”. So, the most achievement indicator in reading descriptive text is in comprehending text. Based on the result of this research, it is recommended to the researcher as the sixth grade students’ English teacher to apply a certain technique to improve the weaknesses of the student in reading descriptive text, particularly in word comprehension, because it affects much the students’ comprehension in sentence comprehension that got the lowest score in this comprehension test.